The network is putting the finishing touches on a two-hour news show, expected to be announced in New York next Tuesday, that will defy the gauzy conventions of morning television. It will emphasize hard news and use a conversational approach like “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and “The View” on ABC.
Starting sometime early next year, Mr. Rose, Ms. King and other new hires will join two of the current co-hosts, Erica Hill and Jeff Glor, on a new set that is being built on the West Side. More than half a dozen CBS staff members described the plan on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss it publicly yet.
CBS declined to comment on the record about the impending changes.
Privately, executives say that because the network has forever failed to beat NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” by imitating those shows, they are comfortable trying something wholly different.
The plan already is the talk of the tight-knit, gossipy New York television news industry. But will it be talked about anywhere else?
Neither Mr. Rose, who hosts the long-running interview series “Charlie Rose” on PBS, nor Ms. King, who hosts a morning talk show on OWN, the cable channel of her best friend, Oprah Winfrey, are proven ratings draws.
“Charlie’s an incredibly talented guy,” said a senior executive at ABC. Asked about what this might mean for ABC’s position in the ratings, this person added, “people are doing a happy dance over here.”
Within the industry, opinions on the plan range from skeptical to downright dismissive, though few will share their comments on the record for two reasons: Mr. Rose is a personal friend to many, while others want the hard news strategy to work, even if they highly doubt that it will.
One such friend, a journalist who works at a competitor of CBS News, said a morning show led by Mr. Rose would aim at an “older, settled demographic,” turning a loss leader for the network into a virtue. “Even if viewership is marginal,” the person said, “it would at least give them the promotional opening to say, ‘We’ve put the news back in morning news, and we’ve decided to offer some thoughtful, mature conversation in the morning.’ ”
Conversely, CBS executives are said to believe that such an approach will attract viewers, not repel them.
The two men who took over CBS News early this year — the “60 Minutes” producer Jeff Fager, who is chairman, and the former Fox News executive David Rhodes, who is president — have steered the news division in a more serious direction.
They have cited ratings gains on the third-place “CBS Evening News” and Sunday’s “Face the Nation” as evidence that it is working. “The Early Show,” however, is down 6 percent this fall from the same time period last year.
For decades, CBS has tried different combinations in the morning, with relatively little to show for it. In 1999, it hired Bryant Gumbel, formerly of the “Today” show. A year ago, it dismissed almost all of the co-hosts and started over from scratch with Ms. Hill. What matters more than anything else, current and former morning producers say, is the chemistry between co-hosts, and CBS has never mastered that piece.
Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of the CBS Corporation, met with CBS News executives this week to review the latest remake, which may or may not retain the name “The Early Show.” The plan calls for Mr. Rose, who has contributed in the past to the network’s most popular program, “60 Minutes,” to help lead the 7 a.m. hour with Ms. Hill, who joined CBS from CNN in early 2010.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=1c1daa549b5af4ef119ab8861802c68a
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